SOUTH TYROL APPLE TRENTINO WINE GRAPE EMILIA ROMAGNA PEACH

PHEROMONES BIOLOGICAL PEST PREVENTION IN MODERN IPM

I N T R O D U C T I O NThe Mating Disruption (MD) technique employing sexual pheromones of Lepidoptera moths received increasing attention over the last decade in Europe. In 2011 it was applied on nearly 1,000,000 hectares of fruits, vines andother crops all over the world; Europe accounted for about 200,000 ha mainly in grape and fresh fruits.The earliest applications of MD began in the late ‘80’s in several countries such as Italy, Swiss, Germany and Spain. Since the mid ‘90’s some of their uses started to expand in several regions and particularly in the fruitsproduction districts of northern Italy like Trentino and South Tyrol for Grape and Apples and Emilia Romagna and Piedmont for Peaches and Pome fruits.

Local technical advisory teams began to integrate pheromones in their IPM strategies for the control of key pests to solve problems connected to the use of chemical insecticides such as pest resistance, particularly in pome fruitsfor Cydia pomonella (CDM) and in stone fruits for Grapholita molesta (OFM), as well as to reduce chemical residues in order to comply with EU MRL’s standards and consumers demand. Furthermore the reduction of availablechemical products, due to the revision process in EU and the increased concerns for workers and public health, brought to a revaluation of IPM strategies where pheromones are confirming their leading role. Clear practicalexamples of the achievements by pheromone based IPM are reported in the data collected by several advisory teams in various regions of Europe that are reported in this poster.

Area wide use of pheromones to disrupt the mating of several applepests including Cydia pomonella (CDM), Grapholita molesta (OFM) andvarious species of Leafrollers allowed to improve their control achievingan average harvest damage below well 1% with an average seasonalinsecticide spray of far less than 1/ha.Also random samples survey confirmed that 85.4% of harvested fruitswere free from any insecticides residue and 14,6% of samples hadresidues of not more than one insecticide used to control the abovepests at levels of 0,01 ppm to 0,12 ppm and 1,5% of samples had twoinsecticides in the same range, both well below the limits allowed by EUregulation as well as the most severe levels set by food retail.

The application of pheromone Mating Disruption to prevent populationdevelopments of Grape Berry Moths (Lobesia botrana and Eupoeciliaambiguella) on 2.400 ha of vineyards located between Mezzocorona, S.Michele and Mezzolombardo towns allowed to reduce the seasonal totalchemical input of insecticides from the average 5 Kg/ha of the ‘90’s downto 0,1 Kg/ha of the last three seasons. At the same time the chemicalinsecticides residues on grape lowered from 0,15-0,25 ppm to 0,01 ppmand the residues in wine could no longer be detected.

Survey conducted, on random basis by cooperatives association andcoordinated with provincial advisors, among growers applyingpheromone Mating Disruption to control Grapholita molesta (OFM) andAnarsia lineatella (PTwB) showed that the chemical insecticide inputdecreased from 4-6 applications in the first season of pheromone usedown to 1 or no spray after 4 years of consecutive pheromoneapplication. This shows the clear efficacy of this preventive method inreducing the pest populations, but also the increased confidenceacquired by growers over the years in a “non killing” system.

Waldner W.1); Varner M.2); Mattedi L.3); Marani G.4); Melandri M.,5) Pradolesi G.5); Iodice A.6), Veronelli V.6)

1) Sudtirol Beratungsring fur Obst und Weinbau, Lana (BZ) Italy 2) Mezzacorona Winery, Mezzocorona (TN) Italy 3) FEM, S. Michele a/Adige (TN) Italy4) AGRISOL Cooperative, Cotignola (RA) Italy 5 ) Terremerse Cooperative R&D, Bagnacavallo (RA) Italy 6) CBC (EUROPE) Ltd., Nova Milanese (MB) Italy

INSECTICIDES INPUT Kg/haMezzacorona Vineyards (2400 ha)

AREA WIDEPheromone Use

0

0,05

0,1

0,15

0,2

0,25

0,3

0,35

0,4

0,45

0,5

ppm

o m

g/K

g

1991

1992

1993

1994

1995

1996

1997

1998

1999

2000

2001

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010

TOTAL INSECTICIDES RESIDUESMezzacorona Grape at harvest

TOTAL INSECTICIDES RESIDUESMezzacorona Commercial Wines

ORCHARDS REPORTSCydia pomonella (Codling moth CDM) damage and treatments

YEAR scouted orchards

harvest damage %

% orchards below 1%

additional spray avg.

1994 421 0.5 86.7 1.5

1995 631 0.8 80.0 0.5

1996 91 0.5 92.3 0.6

1997 66 0.4 89.4 0.3

1998 156 0.9 76.9 0.5

1999 279 0.6 81.7 1.6

2000 187 0.3 92.0 0.7

2001 154 0.3 94.8 0.4

2002 184 0.7 85.8 0.6

2003 223 1.1 77.6 0.9

2004 252 0.8 85.0 0.6

2005 224 0.5 87.0 0.3

2006 155 0.4 85.0 0.3

2007 252 0.5 87,7 n.d.

2008 256 0.18 97,2 n.d.

2009 259 0,09 98,8 n.d.

2010 272 0,26 95,6 n.d.

APPLE DAMAGE HISTORYCydia pomonella (Codling moth CDM)

CDM DAMAGED APPLES % IN MERAN MD ORCHARDS 1994-2010

APPLES INSECTICIDES RESIDUESCydia pomonella (Codling moth CDM)

CHEMICAL INSECTICIDES RESIDUES SAMPLES IN MERAN AREA* Sprays number in relation to years of pheromone MD use

0

20

40

60

80

100

0 1-3 4-6 >6N. Trattamenti

Supe

rfic

ie (%

)

12-34-10

INSECTICIDES SPRAYRavenna peach orchards

1 YEAR2-3 YEARS4-10

YEARS

Sprays number

Orc

hard

ssu

rfac

e%

surface using MD for Cydia molesta and/or Anarsialineatella

PHEROMONE MD USERavenna peach orchards

OFM DAMAGED PEACHES % in MD ORCHARDS in 2006

PEACH DAMAGE IN MDCydia molesta (Oriental fruit moth OFM)

Orc

hard

ssu

rfac

e%

Harvest damage %

Years

Years

EC - MRL

RETAIL - MRL

mg/

kg o

rppm

* ANALYSIS ON 227 RANDOM SAMPLES200973,6% (167) NEGATIVE - FREE FROM RESIDUE 26,4% (60) POSITIVE WITH LOW RESIDUES well below both the EC-MRL and the RETAIL - MRL (30% OF EC)201085,4% (194) NEGATIVE - FREE FROM RESIDUE 14,6% (33) POSITIVE WITH LOW RESIDUES well below both the EC-MRL and the RETAIL - MRL (30% OF EC)

Source South Tyrol Apple Consortium

Years

CD

M h

arve

st d

amag

e %

OECD Workshop on IPM 16-19 October 2011 Berlin (Germany)